Debates of October 20, 2020 (day 40)

Colleagues, before we begin, I just want to say a few words. Today is a difficult day in Fort McPherson. We have a funeral there for Deborah Kendi Blake. Thoughts and prayers are with the community. During these times, our communities, especially here in the North really pull together to help one another. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and I'm sorry I couldn't be there today as I usually am when I can be. Just know that we're thinking of you all, especially through the days ahead. Keep them in prayers. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is responsible for the implementation of the NWT Water Stewardship Strategy, including transboundary water management agreements and water monitoring throughout the Northwest Territories. Together with our partners, we track long-term trends and monitor changes in water quality, quantity, and biology.

In March of this year, the Government of Canada shut down its labs and suspended long-term water quality monitoring across Canada due to concerns related to COVID-19. The Alberta government also suspended monitoring water quality at that time throughout the province. This included some key monitoring sites that are part of our transboundary agreement with Alberta. These sites are part of an early warning system which lets us know about changes to the water before the Northwest Territories border.

Mr. Speaker, as soon as we heard about this decision, I along with Environment and Natural Resources officials reached out to the governments of Alberta and Canada, to explain the importance of reinstating this very important monitoring. We also worked closely with the Government of Canada to resume water monitoring at key federal long-term monitoring sites.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report that the monitoring that makes up our early warning system is now back up and running. The Alberta government resumed its monitoring in June, and oil sands monitoring has been in place since August. Environment and Natural Resources quickly adapted its fieldwork procedures so it could continue to monitor water in the Northwest Territories safely during the pandemic with only slight delays, and for this, the department should be commended. Our transboundary agreements are the most comprehensive of their kind. In addition to the commitments on water quality and quantity, these agreements also recognize the importance of biological indicators and traditional knowledge. Triggers set under the agreements, which are reported on in annual reports, help ensure that any issues that could put Northwest Territories waters at risk can be addressed early on.

Mr. Speaker, water levels this year across parts of the Mackenzie River Basin have been very high. Water levels on Great Slave Lake were higher than we had seen. This has caused changes in the water. More dirt or sediment is being washed into the lakes and rivers, and there was a larger plume of sediment in Great Slave Lake lasting later in the season. Higher sediment has also resulted in higher concentrations of metals, in some cases the highest levels ever recorded in the Slave and Hay Rivers. Although total metal concentrations are higher than usual, they are not in a form that is readily available to be taken up by aquatic species. The work to analyze water samples gathered this summer is ongoing, and we plan to release the results as they are available. Environment and Natural Resources is working with our neighbours in Alberta and British Columbia to better understand the contributions from upstream watersheds to water levels in Great Slave Lake, including the role of the Bennett Dam in British Columbia.

Many Northerners are wondering what will happen to water levels this winter. We already know the high-water levels are mostly due to more rain and snow across Alberta and the southern Northwest Territories; some areas received up to twice as much rain this year. Environment and Natural Resources is taking a closer look at the factors affecting water levels and will release the results of this work once complete.

Mr. Speaker, the health of our water is of critical importance to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Environment and Natural Resources will continue to collaborate with our transboundary partners to manage water resources in a sustainable manner to maintain the ecological integrity of the Mackenzie River Basin, for present and future generations.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Ministers' statements. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to update the Members on the progress we have made with our mandate commitment to reduce the municipal funding gap by $5 million in the lifetime of this government. We recognize the important role that the community governments play in our economy and the provision of core programs and services. Community governments are essential partners in delivering programs and services to meet the needs of NWT residents, and they require adequate resources for this important work. I am pleased to confirm that we are making progress on this mandate commitment. In the fiscal year, we added $2.6 million to community funding, and we will continue to seek additional increases in future budgets.

Mr. Speaker, this additional community government funding is welcoming news to our community governments. Since its beginning, MACA has worked with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and its members on the funding strategy. As part of the ongoing engagement, we are determining how best to allocate the $2.6 million. The Government of the Northwest Territories is matched by the federal investment in safe restart funding for municipalities. This winter, we will be rolling out approximately $4.7 million to help our communities put in place appropriate precautions to manage public spaces and critical services and safely restart operations. Reducing the municipal funding gap is not only just about adding funding. It is also about supporting communities to provide new opportunities to raise additional revenues and to reduce or stabilize the cost of delivering core services.

Mr. Speaker, three key initiatives the department is advancing to support community governments in these areas are:

MACA is working with other Government of the Northwest Territories departments on processing guides on how to transfer land within municipal boundaries. I expect to share the draft this winter. This guide will set the path for providing community governments to acquire ownership and manage land currently held by the GNWT within their boundaries. Community governments will have the ability to take over management functions and enforcement and, if it desires, sell land, which offers an opportunity for own-source revenue.

The department is supporting communities to find efficiencies in their program delivery. Assisting communities to put in place response plans through the asset management system will improve maintenance and lower the costs of equipment failures and emergency repairs. This will allow community leaders to have access to improved information when making investment decisions and be able to maximize their available resources.

The Northwest Territories waste water resource management strategy has a strong focus for community governments. MACA will be working with communities to eliminate hazardous waste stockpiles within their solid-waste sites. Resources and supports that have for community governments in solid waste management are being adapted. Through better management, better operations of their solid-waste sites will not only improve environment stewardship but can significantly increase the lifespan of community sites and defer the needs for costly investment.

Mr. Speaker, some community governments face significant pressures to deliver quality programs and services. We see that. We get it. Through our increased investment and support for land management and facility management, we are working hard to help communities manage these challenges. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Most of us in the NWT understand that we co-exist with the wildlife that surrounds us. At times, the two worlds collide, which can result with the injury or worse, a fatality.

Mr. Speaker, last Friday, we all received notice that, in the early hours of the morning, a young lady in Hay River was mauled by a bear in a residential area. What transpired is nothing short of heroism. Shelley Wood, a female occupant of the residence who just received her knitting supplies earlier that day, decided to stay up late and start the process of making use of those supplies. Whether or not it was fate that she stayed up, it was fortunate that she did. It was around 2:30 am in the morning that she heard a commotion outside.

Mr. Speaker, upon looking through a window onto the deck, she witnessed a person being viciously attacked by a bear. At that point, she picked up some boots, went outside, and threw them at the bear. Realizing the bear was not backing down, she ran back in, yelling for help from her spouse, Roy Helmer. Roy, unaware of what was really happening, awoke from a deep sleep and sprang into action. Without hesitation, he ran outside and saw that the bear was dragging the girl down the stairs. He grabbed another boot and threw it at the bear. The bear would not back away from the young lady. Roy grabbed a heavy cement statue and went after the bear. He threw the statue at the bear, hitting it, causing the bear to release the young lady and momentarily retreat. This provided Roy the time he needed to pull the young lady to the safety of his home.

Mr. Speaker, the combined actions of Roy Helmer and Shelley Wood saved this young lady's life. The young lady was fortunate to have survived such a vicious bear attack. She has since been transported to Edmonton for medical treatment. I would like her and her family to know that they are in our thoughts and prayers.

Mr. Speaker, without thought for their own safety, Roy Helmer and Shelley Wood rushed to the aid of the young lady in distress. If ever there was an event that shows heroism, this is such an event. I would like to recognize and have this House show our appreciation to both Roy Helmer and Shelley Wood for unselfishly placing themselves in harm's way to save the life of this young lady. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Members' statements. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment is responsible for the Northwest Territories education system from junior kindergarten to grade 12, which includes all of the small communities. I realize the department does not deliver the education services directly to the students. As they have stated on many occasions, that is the responsibility of the regional education boards. This is like passing the buck so they would not have to take responsibility even for oversight.

Mr. Speaker, the Education Act states that students must have access to the highest possible standards of education programs. The department is responsible to ensure that all students have equal access to education programs and services. High-quality education delivered by well-trained and knowledgeable educators prepares students for success throughout their schooling. The Auditor General's report on education noted that the department did not determine what needed to be done to ensure that students in small communities had equitable access to education and programs and services compared with larger regional centres. The Auditor General's report also states: "the department did not take sufficient steps to collect and use data to understand how it might make changes to address persistent gaps in student outcomes." The report goes on to state that the findings matter because high-quality education programs can have a significant impact on children's developmental, educational, cultural, emotional, and social outcomes. The report also states that planning and supporting the delivery of education are important to help students succeed.

Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the education Minister at the appropriate time. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Members' statements. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to talk about another one of our priorities, increasing the number of resident healthcare professionals by at least 20 percent. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT funds Aurora College. GNWT funds students through student financial assistance to attend not just Aurora College but other post-secondary institutions. Aurora College has been providing the nursing program, successfully having graduates for over 20 years, and they have run the practical nurse program sporadically over the years, as well as the personal support program.

Mr. Speaker, NWT continues to struggle to hire permanent healthcare staff throughout the territory. We all know this. We fly in short-term contract nurses to staff vacancies, some as short as two weeks, especially during peak holiday season. They are flown in to the NWT from all over the country into our health centres, who already distrust our healthcare system. This is unfair, not only for our residents but the nurses in the community, for such short periods where they are never there long enough to build any relationship with the community.

Mr. Speaker, we have a disconnected system. We pay to provide programs and to train healthcare staff, and yet we do not have a way to bridge them into our healthcare jobs that we are struggling to staff. We have Indigenous residents who have been funded to attend our Aurora College and been screened out of jobs. This should not happen. We should have human resources, department of health, and Aurora College working together, not working in silos. We should be recruiting them right out of school.

Another area we are not doing so well in is actively looking at our new nursing graduates and permanent staff we now have, finding out if there are any of these nurses who want extra training so they are able to meet the criteria needed for health centres. How will they ever get the training and be able to meet this is it is not provided to them through mentorships or internships focused on giving them exactly what they need to be successful in these areas that we are filling right now without a territory staffing?

Mr. Speaker, with more local residents working in our healthcare system, we will be able to provide culturally sensitive care for our residents of the NWT. I will have questions for the Minister of Finance over the human resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Members' statements. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Look at that. After one year, I'm having trouble with my first button. Is that a good sign or not? I'm not sure.

---Laughter

Today, I would like to talk about mental health supports in the NWT, particularly in relation to the ongoing pandemic. In my opinion, we are in a mental health crisis in the North that needs immediate attention from this government.

Mr. Speaker, the issue of mental health has become front and centre amid the COVID-19 pandemic for a few reasons. The main reason, as we have come to know, is just the sheer amount of time that people have had to remain indoors during their self-isolation. This pandemic has caused many disruptions to everyday life, so it's no real surprise that people's mental health has been suffering throughout the course of this pandemic. I have heard some of my colleagues mention suicide and relationships in the home. All of those have been weighing on the minds of a lot of Northerners.

However, even before this pandemic began, mental health had been a long-standing issue for people in the NWT, so COVID-19 has only amplified this issue further. To give an example, in early September, I drove down to Alberta to grab my daughters. I took them back in time for school. I'm glad I did because they would probably want to still be staying down there. When I came back, I did my 14 days here at the Chateau Nova, and I have to say I keep pretty active. I keep pretty busy mentally and physically, but it was a real challenge. By day seven, I was getting pretty stir crazy, and I guess for lack of a better word, I started to feel cabin fever after a while. I could only imagine what that burden is like on people who have to make repeated medical visits down south. They have to come back and do their 14 days every time.

On that note, Mr. Speaker, there is another, darker aspect to these self-isolation centres that we never really considered. I was approached by some elders and got some reports that, during this self-isolation, they went in, they were herded in, for lack of a better word, and they were given meals, specific diets, and some of these people said that it felt like residential school all over again, re-traumatizing for our people.

I'm not saying this in a disparaging way towards our staff, because, by all accounts, they are doing a good job. Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, colleagues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll be brief. Going back to what I was saying, by all accounts, the staff here at the self-isolation centres are doing a great job, given our circumstances, but there is definitely a need there for mental health supports. I think that we can improve this quality of service for our people, but there are all kinds of adversities we have to face and we can do more to help with them, with health supports for Northerners. I will have questions for the Premier. Marsi cho.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Members' statements. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I made my last statement on the Cameron Hills sour gas field in this House on February 26, 2020. GNWT accepted this property under devolution even though there was no approved closure plan and financial security of only $2.9 million. Furthermore, GNWT never requested a revision in financial security or used other tools at its disposal to prevent this disaster. When I raised these matters with the current Minister of Lands, he could not provide any reason as to why GNWT accepted this site under the devolution agreement or why GNWT did not exercise all of its authority to prevent this site from becoming a public liability.

The Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations was apparently payable under some sort of a commercial general liability insurance policy for up to $5 million by the former owner, Strategic Oil and Gas Limited, but that policy may have expired in January 2019. OROGO may also hold an irrevocable letter of credit of an unknown amount. There may also be a letter of credit to the National Energy Board for $245,000 for the pipeline that carried Cameron Hills gas into Alberta.

What is clear is that the remediation of this site is going to cost taxpayers a lot of money. How much? There is still no approved closure plan or reclamation estimate for this very complex property that consists of 50 wells, winter roads, summer all-terrain vehicle trails, a gas and oil gathering system, a central battery, temporary and permanent camps, air strips, borrow pits, bridges, and pipelines. It appears that the three worst wells were partially closed and abandoned this last winter. That is good news, but it's not clear how much that cost, what funds remain available to GNWT, how much more it will cost taxpayers to clean up this mess, and where those funds will actually come from.

I will again have questions for the Minister of Lands on how we got ourselves into this mess, whereby NWT taxpayers are on the hook for what is likely tens of millions of dollars of environmental liabilities, and I would also like to know what is being done about it. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This past June, the Departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Industry, Tourism and Investment teamed up to announce a new website for the NWT Nominee Program. The goal of this resource is to help attract, settle, and retain foreign nationals to the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, I see great value in attracting newcomers to the Northwest Territories; increasing our population base is the easiest way for the NWT to increase the federal transfer payment, which is how the government generates most of its spending money. Immigration also increases diversity and reunites families, both of which enrich the lives of all Northerners. Immigration is good news for the NWT. There are two streams within the Nominee Program: the employer-driven stream, which allows employers who want to hire and nominate foreign nationals when there are no Canadians or Canadian permanent residents available to do the job; and the business stream, which encourages immigration by foreign nationals with the resources to start or purchase an NWT business.

While this economic development is good news for the NWT, my concern today is for the ability of the GNWT to protect resident northern business owners and to support and assist potential business owners to immigrate to the NWT. Until June of this year, the GNWT required a $75,000 good-faith deposit from foreign business owners wanting to set up shop in the Northwest Territories. This encouraged foreign entrepreneurs to meet their program commitments, but what happened to the deposit when all did not go according to plan? Did the GNWT simply refund the good-faith deposit, or did it stay in the GNWT and fall into general revenue? What are the criteria for determining when this deposit is repayable, and what would become of the debts to northern businesses incurred by foreign entrepreneurs? Ultimately, why did the GNWT opt to do away with the good-faith deposit, Mr. Speaker?

Immigration is great news. Economic development is great news, but not to the detriment of northern business owners. I look forward to working with the Minister toward a solution which benefits and protects both northern business owners and the Nominee Program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Members' statements. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's been a tough few months since our last sitting, in our communities, with all the deaths we've been having. It's been really tough with COVID-19 restrictions for the funerals. I had a few people pass away in my riding, Mr. Speaker.

George Pokiak passed away in Tuktoyaktuk. Thoughts and prayers are with his family.

My good friend Jesse Ranger, Jesse Panaktalok. Thoughts and prayers for Liz and family. You will be missed in our patrol, but never forgotten.

Ernest "Ernie" Raymond. To his family, Ernie was a very good friend growing up; he grew up across the street and we checked a lot of fishnets together, so a lot of good times. He won't be forgotten, to his sisters.

Lucy Cockney. To Noe and family for the loss of their mother. She was an awesome lady who did so much for our community of Tuktoyaktuk and had so many roles in leadership and teaching our youth at the school.

"Butch" Willie Jacobson, my brother. I lost my brother this summer, and I am still dealing with it. My thoughts and prayers are with my sister-in-law, Bessie, and all my family back home. We are going to get through this together.

Randal Pokiak, one of our elders in the IFA, who did so much for our people in the Tuktoyaktuk Community Corporation and the IRC in the early days for negotiations and stuff, thoughts and prayers are with Deva, Lucky, and Enoc and all his brothers and sisters and their families. Thoughts and prayers.

Auntie Alvira Klengenberg. To Rex and the boys, thoughts and prayers are with you.

Walter Olifie. We call him "Olifie" and always had good visits with him in Ulukhaktok. He was one of our respected elders over there, and we lost him this past September. Thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

Elizebeth Kuptana of Paulatuk passed away this past summer. Thoughts and prayers are with them and their family and the community of Paulatuk.

All my communities across the territory, whoever lost a loved one, our thoughts and prayers are with you, and God bless you all. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families, as well. Mahsi. Members' statements. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT's economic recovery must be built on strong foundations, and in our case, those foundations are our communities and our municipal governments, Mr. Speaker. Before we want to grow and expand our mandate, we must make sure that our municipalities are taken care of. However, in this case, that foundation is crumbling, quite literally. Our municipal roads, sewers, and basic infrastructure are degrading from the lack of maintenance and unstable footings.

Mr. Speaker, we de-fund our municipalities $9.6 million in operations and maintenance, $6.5 million in environmental, $24.3 million in capital, for a total of $40.4 million every single year. I am happy to hear the Minister's statement today about an additional $2.6 million as well as the $4.7 million to address the significant lost revenues and work they took on during COVID. However, Mr. Speaker, this is not a long-term solution. We agreed to a municipal funding formula, and then, in typical GNWT fashion, we failed to implement it or provide the money.

If we do not agree with the funding formula, then we must go back to the table and renegotiate it. The problem is we designed this formula, and we have not followed up with the money in hand, Mr. Speaker. I am appreciative of the mandate commitment to reduce the funding gap by $5 million, and perhaps there is some work, as the Minister spoke about today, in regard to land transfer, working with revenues to reduce another $5 million. However, we are still a long way off from reducing that gap. As we barrel into our debt wall and are about to approve one of the largest capital budgets in NWT history, largely due to carry-overs because we cannot get the money out the door, it's insulting to our communities, Mr. Speaker. They can get their money out the door, and far better than us, they will make sure it is spent in our communities and employs local Northerners.

Mr. Speaker, we in this House do not deserve to build multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects when our communities cannot make sure their roads and sewers are funded. I will have questions for the Minister of MACA on whether MACA will bring forward legislation to give municipalities some certainty and a real path forward to close this gap. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member for Monfwi.

Masi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not available].

Mr. Speaker, last week, I asked the Minister of Health and Social Services for a status report on progress relating to a promise made in this House on May 29, 2020, when the former Minister was in charge. The problem was that the department was studying the idea of providing residential addiction treatment here in the Northwest Territories as opposed to sending Northerners to southern institutions. The response last week was that a promise had not been followed up on. In fact, the Minister at that time denied any knowledge of it.

To refresh the Minister's memory, Mr. Speaker, I quote her deputy minister speaking before the House: "[...] what we could be doing here in the North [...] and might [...] be [better] opportunities to look at [...] treatment centre[s]? It is certainly something that's not off the table. It is something we are going to be looking at as a range of options to incorporate lessons learned out of COVID." If there is any possible doubt, Mr. Speaker, the quote continues: "[...] we are, absolutely, open to the idea of looking at [...] treatment centre, and we'll be taking a look at this question, and different treatment models as part of our planning forward."

Mr. Speaker, it disappoints me that the Minister and her department would treat their commitments so lightly, especially on such an important matter for the Northwest Territories. With this in mind, Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of health at a later time. Masi.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Members' statements. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Helen Margaret (Hardisty) Edjericon was born to Sarah and William Hardisty in Fort Simpson on February 24, 1956. She was the ninth child in a family of twelve, four older brothers, and her parents predeceased her. Helen spent her childhood in Jean Marie but often spent the summer months in Fort Simpson so that her father and older brothers could maintain wage employment. Although the family lived through lean times, Helen was raised in a strict but loving Christian home. She attended school in Jean Marie River until grade six, grades seven to nine in Fort Simpson, and she completed her schooling at Sir John Franklin High School in Yellowknife.

After graduation, she returned to Fort Simpson and lived there for a few years until moving to Norman Wells to live with her older sister Shirley and family in 1977. In 1979, she returned to Fort Simpson and moved to Hay River to live with her older brother Ron and his family where she worked for the GNWT. She later moved to Inuvik until approximately 1981, when she moved to Yellowknife. It was while she was living in Yellowknife that she met her former husband, Richard Edjericon, and they married in July 1986. Their son, Dion, was born in 1984 and grandson, Deacon, was born in 2007. She started working for the Dene Nation in Yellowknife not long after moving there and worked there for more than 10 years.

Helen was known for her meticulous housekeeping and was also known for her cooking skills as well as her passion for bingo. She loved entertaining family and friends in her big house in Ndilo. Helen loved to talk, especially when she was younger, and her siblings used to tease her about it. She was friendly and outgoing. She had many friends in the places she lived in and was very athletic when she was young. During her years in Akaitcho Hall, she was part of the Akaitcho girls' basketball team and joined a women's basketball team in Inuvik when she moved there.

After her marriage broke down, she lived with her friends and family and continued until her health started failing her. Although Helen experienced difficulties in her life, she never lost her faith in God and her firm belief in Him. She will be sadly missed by her family and friends. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to return to questions I was asking the Minister of Justice yesterday. I'd ask the Minister if he can tell me: for every $1 spent in dealing with addictions, how much is spent on drug and alcohol enforcement in the NWT? If he doesn't have the information, I'll give him time to get it at some point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have the NWT-specific numbers, but I know that in Canada in 2014 is the most recent information I have. That's from a report prepared by the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. For every $32 million spent on healthcare, there's about $10 million for healthcare for substance abuse, there's a corresponding $10 million spent on enforcement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'd ask the Minister: what is the average time for drug trafficking production, importing, exporting, to move through the justice system?

In adult criminal court according to Stats Canada, the average number of days it takes to get other drug offence is the technical term through the court system, and those would be things like drug trafficking, production, and importing and exporting, in the NWT in 2017-2018, it was 277 days, and the Canadian average -- sorry. That's the Canadian average, and in the NWT, it's 295 days. In 2018-2019, the Canadian average was 273 days, but in the NWT, the average was 413 days. That is because we are a small jurisdiction. If you have one large, complex case, that can skew the statistics, and there's ups and downs.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police proposed diverting people dealing with substance abuse or addiction issues away from the criminal justice system towards social services and healthcare. Can the Minister confirm that this is an approach the department agrees with, and if so, has it been put into practice?

It's an odd notion to treat addiction as a criminal matter, and so, I'm fully in support of diversion where we can and providing supports where we can. The GNWT has been providing alternatives to the traditional justice system for a number of years. Every year, we contribute $1.8 million to community justice programming which includes formal diversions. We have an annual priority established through a contract with the RCMP to prioritize diversions. A number of the sanctions from the community justice committees include things like counselling, cultural connection, and treatment.

The RCMP, as well, and they're committed to diversion, as well, they are very supportive of their local community partners. Here, in Yellowknife, there's the Yellowknife sobering centre, and in Behchoko, there's the warming centre. In Yellowknife, through those kinds of partnerships, they've seen a 73 percent decrease in the number of prisoners in cells from 2014 to 2018. In 2014, it was 6,500 individuals in cells, and we're down to about 1,700 now. There is a diversion away from that criminal system.

We also have integrated case management within the GNWT. In the South Slave, SMCC is transitioning to a therapeutic community model. It's still in the justice system, but it's trying to direct people out of it and then giving them the tools they need to overcome addictions and stay out of the system. We also have the Wellness Court, as well, which looks at the circumstances of the offender and tries to deal with those as opposed to looking at an offence and punishing someone for an offence.

We are trying different things. It's always tough. I understand now why my predecessor would always say this. We're dealing with people at the end of a lot of trauma and a lot of decisions that led them down this path. It's tough to change that course, but we are trying. We are committed to it.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The RCMP and police, in general, have been receiving bad press lately. This is disturbing when we consider the good work they do which never gets reported. Mr. Speaker, not only are our RCMP officers paid less than provincial counterparts, a past Auditor General report confirms that RCMP are understaffed and, because of it, receive adequate training. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm what the department is doing to ensure our complement of officers in the NWT meet our needs in the North and that they are adequately trained? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank the Member for highlighting the positive contributions of the RCMP. I've stated before in the House that they don't do the kind of self-promotion that, perhaps, they could to get those accolades.

The NWT does have the highest concentration of RCMP officers in Canada. We have 416 per 100,000 people. The next highest is Nunavut with 354 per 100,000. We are staffed quite well with RCMP. In terms of the training, there's a significant amount of mandatory training that RCMP have, and in order to support that and support increased training because there's always new training every year, every time something happens, there's training in response to it, the department increased funding to the RCMP in 2019-2020 by $200,000 annually just for training, and that's the 70 percent contribution that the GNWT makes. In total, there was almost a third of a million dollars increase in training budget a couple of years ago.

I want to say, the Member mentions, the RCMP have been getting some bad press, but in my five years in this Assembly, no one has ever said they want less RCMP. Every community, every Member says they want more RCMP in the community and that they appreciate their efforts. The Member made a statement earlier in regards to a bear attack in Hay River, and it was the RCMP who responded to that and who dispatched the bear. They do a lot of good that isn't recognized, so I appreciate the Member's questions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.